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Two doses of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine — initially referred to as a full regimen — “offers very limited protection, if any” against the Omicron variant, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Monday during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
That’s a far cry from Bourla’s previous claim that the two-dose regimen was “100% effective.”
When a third, or booster dose, is administered the vaccine offers only “reasonable protection” against hospitalization and death from Omicron and “less protection against infection,” Bourla said.
This latest admission by Bourla is “critically important for the Supreme Court mandate cases,” said Dr. Meryl Nass, because both the employer and healthcare worker mandates require only the first two vaccinations.
“It is hard to see how any mandates could stand up,” said Nass, a practicing physician and member of the Children’s Health Defense scientific advisory committee.
Journalist Jordan Schachtel speculated Bourla admitted the ineffectiveness of Pfizer’s vaccine against Omicron to prop up the vaccine maker’s newest and upcoming product: an Omicron-specific vaccine.
Bourla told CNBC’s Meg Tirrell that Pfizer’s Omicron-specific vaccine will be ready by March.
It’s estimated that Pfizer made $33.5 billion in COVID vaccine revenue in 2021, and the company expects similar results this year.
